Mountain, Cross and Shuffleboard Nats

[Mountain Bike Mike]

I was spectating at the top of the first switchback climb (actual lap - not prologue) during the Cat1's.. I remember you came through and made that last techy pitch look like childs play. After you turned the corner, I got a good look at the bike and thought (I may have even said it out loud) I recognize that bike from the forum.. I think that is pixychick - By the time it registered, you were long gone.

Nice work out there!

 

[pixychick]

Less than 3 weeks to the move, so I am already starting to pack up the less used things in my house. With 32 years of collecting stuff, I thought a month would be proper. Last week I lost a bunch of sleep thinking about all the things I had to do before I moved. Now that I have done some of that stuff, I am feeling better. We also have finished our list of things to remediate before closing. Yay! The soon to be new owners have been pretty reasonable. They even bought some of our furniture that will not fit in the new place. I was doubtful that things would go so well, but so far, the house stuff has been ok on both ends. Both the realtors and the lawyer says that this is unusual. Keeping my fingers crossed that all 3 closings go well. Oh, did I mention that Art's work building closing is the same week. He does not own the building but has managed it for years and I do the bookkeeping. The first few weeks of August will be action packed, and I may try to race as well. Adult beverages will be involved at some point.

My brief 3 hours on the bike last week has left me feeling much better this week. I had an awesome ride yesterday. The kind of ride I am supposed to have as a retired person in summer. On top of that, the weather has been fantastic. While sleeping with the windows open, I can hear the crickets and the famous cicadas I remember hearing since I was a child. Some people think they sound weird, but they are so normal to me. In the morning the birds start: wrens, bluejays with the vocabulary of a mocking birds, and then there are the sugar crack head downy woodpeckers. The woodpeckers have taken to eating from the hummingbird feeder. Thankfully a few of them share with the hummingbirds. I will miss all the crazy critters, but I suppose I will meet new ones at my new house. Maybe even a bobcat!

 

[pixychick]

 

[pixychick]

I have been real busy this week, and today was the big purge at my house. My curbside summer pick up is tomorrow, and our whole curb is lined with give aways. I am a thrifty person that hates to throw away, but today was the big reality. We had to let go of things that were still usable. They just would not fit in the new place. While some people sell things on ebay or in yards sales, I have no energy for that. I put out some feelers to friends to grab our unwanted items and send them to others in need. It is great to see toss away items get repurposed. This helps in so many ways, as I hate to waste. Most all the usable items found homes from our curb.

Riding: The few times I got on the bike this week, I felt like crap, but I still plan to race 909 this weekend. 909 is a fun place to ride, and to be honest I have no expectations race wise. I will just keep at it through the move and keep myself going in some form. My result is not important right now.

 

[Norm]

Hey we'll be there tomorrow if you haven't gotten that SLB stuff south of you yet. We can help transport.

 

[pixychick]

Before I start my post I wanted to thank Norm, Iggs and Mitch for passing along our bike part discards to Kerry at Second Life bikes. Not only did it make our move a tad smaller, but it also started the "pay it forward" bike love process, and hopefully it will make someone's day better down the line.

So, on the "pay it forward" subject, I feel as if it has already come around to me. Today marks a special day: the closing of my old home and the last of 3 closings that took place this past week. I am in my new down sized place, with boxes all over, and I love it! Within 12 hours, hummingbirds came to our feeder, Harry the blue heron has visited, and we have met many neighbors, some of which ride bikes. We are so thrilled that the new owners of our past home seem to love the house. Both buyers and sellers in both transactions were wonderful to work with. I thought I might get teary eyed taking my last walk through the old house but it felt so right to enjoy it for 32 years and walk away and leave it to some nice kids. Sort of like pay it forward except I got to deposit a large check afterwards .

As smooth as everything has worked out so far, I am physically and emotionally wiped out. I must have sweated 2 gallons while cleaning my house without air conditioning on Saturday. It probably would have been worth it to hire a cleaning service, but I did not even think of that. I did go to Mountain Creek to do the XC race on Sunday, and only finished 2 laps. It was just too much for me to do 3 laps. I probably should have only done 1 but just like the cleaning, I get doing something and just follow through with out questioning sometimes. It was actually nice to get out and hang out with bike people, as I have felt a little pre occupied lately.

Tonight I am getting ready to join my eighty something year old mother to celebrate the sale of the commercial building that she owned. That sale took about a year in the works, and also had a happy ending and it sold to a neighbor, without a broker and quite amiably once we all got through the environmental government stuff, which was all clean. I know the regulations help protect and clean the world up, but it often feels like everyone just wants to to get a piece of every sale. Well, that may be a discussion for another day, as today I would rather think about Pay it Forward.

 

[pixychick]

Now that I have a had a few weeks to catch my breath, I am still loving my move. Although I probably would not have been able to vision this move as possible a few years ago, I should have done this sooner. I suppose things happen at the right time for a reason, and I am glad I figured it out and did it.

Unpacking has been a real pain, and unfortunately, it is not done yet. It may not get done this year as we still do not have room for all our stuff. If I can offer any advice, it is "do not collect too much stuff". As americans, we are so stuff oriented, and Art and I both come from families that collected. It has been a process to decide what is worth keeping and what should go.

When I'm not unpacking, I can go out in the yard and hang out by the pond. Our neighbor, the pond master is away for September and has left Art his hip waiters. Art's job is to lift the gates if one of those "storm of the centuries" that we get every few years should come to town. The theory is to drain the pond before it overflows and floods us all. Sounds simple in theory. I hope we do not need to practice this year.

The new kitchen is nice, but this is our only counter space. I guess we are downsizing in counter space too. Another reason to leave the cooking to Art and stay out of the kitchen perhaps.

This light fixture was supposed to stay behind and some how the realtor convinced us that we should keep it because it was an antique that my Dad passed on to us. I do not know how I let her opinion sway me one way or another, but it came with us and looks really great in the new kitchen.

Harry the Heron portrait works well too.

... and then there is the saw. The saw is one of those things I thought about getting rid of, only to find out that sales are illegal and banned most places. Before you de- friend me on FB, I did not buy this the saw or kill the fish that belonged to this saw. It was in my bed room at a house my family purchased years ago. Since it was left there when we bought the house, I left it behind for the next owner as if it was part of the house. It was in the room that Albert Einstein was believed to have stayed on vacation. The saw seemed part of the history of the house so I left it behind. When my brother went to the closing he saw it (no pun intended) and grabbed it thinking I forgot it. Now I am left owning a banned hunting trophy. So, it lives here with us.

Degreaser is the perfect accent for old lady wallpaper!

I am also closer to Wawayanda! I wish I could say I am riding tons, but that is not the case. I have hit some major burn out on the bike. Not race burn out but major burn out. I will be taking a break from the normal routines for now. I hope to find bike love agin, but for now I need to keep it on the low. I hope to be out spectating some cross soon, and will see some of you then!

 

[pixychick]

It looks like the leaves are falling and the air is getting colder, and you know what that means? Time to head back to Arizona soon.

.... But before I head back, there is some big news: After 15 years working with Sterling Forest on a trail assessment program, we are finally building multi-use trails in Sterling. I spent last Saturday working with a professional trail builder on a new trail within walking distance from my house. When I moved to Tuxedo I had no idea this would ever go through. To be honest, I did not want to wish for it too much in fear of disappointment. It can be discouraging when these things keep backfiring. I can thank Michael Vitti for staying with this and never giving up. I plan to get out and work a few more times before I head west. This really gives me more to get excited about coming back east.

I also have registered for 24HOP which is in February. I will be doing a 5 person non competitive team with Art, my teammate Marianne and my neighbors, who do not race. It should be a lot of fun and everyone is excited about doing the race. Racing still seems far away, which is good because I am feeling out of shape right now. With all the housing changes, 2015 has not been a great year for fitness. So no cyclocross, no nationals, and no epic rides for me this year, but I hope next year brings more riding my way.

Stay tuned for more home projects soon. I am almost certain that there will be more electrical debacles!

 

[pixychick]

Well, I am back in Arizona for a bit. The drive out was not so great. The weather was perfect in NJ and AZ but rainy and cold in between. I got very little riding in the middle of the country, but am ok to let that go. I just thought it may be nice to sample some riding in between somewhere, but it has somehow confirmed my choice on where to land for retirement.

The weather out here has been great, sunny and 70's every day until yesterday. Thunderstorms last night left a dappling of snow above 6000 ft. We are at 3000 so it was just 50's and windy today. The weather out here suits me well this time of year. My legs are already tan and covered with scratches. The extra rain this year has left the local trails overgrown. Unlike NJ, every living thing out here is out to get you, even the plants. Brushing by what seems like a soft brach of brush like leaves results in blood. While raking the yard I got stung by a fire ant and had a swollen arm. I guess I could say this place makes me feel alive in new ways. That being said, the big spiders take some time to get used to. They sort of took over our house while we were gone, but it did not take much to get them out. Just another reminder that we need to tighten up our house more. I'll get into that more on my next post on house projects.

 

[pixychick]

We have been plugging away at small projects the last few weeks and in between fitting in some ok rides. Most of our rides are short and from the house, but we did get down to Robles and Star Pass one day, Arizona Trail to the south in Vail and one trail work day at Robles. We also tested our new lights on a local full moon night ride. The night ride was awesome! Riding in the desert at night is very cool. Thirty feet up or down and you hit these cold pockets of air, not to mention the full moon over the mountains lighting up the dessert is just spectacular. I would say it was best night riding experience to date.

I also have been enjoying working outside on our house, which is something I would not do much in NJ in the winter. We had a front garden that had lattice, dead grape vines, dead roses and overgrown with grass and weeds. I did not want a garden that had to be pampered over in summer when we are not there. We yanked out the plastic lattice and dead stuff including old tiles that were used for borders. I then transplanted some native drought tolerant plants. While discarding the lattice at the dump, someone asked if they could take it. You have to love recycling at it's best! I felt good that some plastic was saved from a landfill, although that plastic would end up in someone else's yard somewhere. Not sure if that makes any difference in the long run, but I had a feel good moment non the less .

This room is on our agenda for fix up this year. We need a new window and some fireplace repair. We also want to seal up some of the gaps in the ceiling.

Jus another boring Arizona sunset:

Yesterday the shed came down. We actually hired someone to do it. It was pretty crappy, sheathed with only particle board, not attached to the house or even set on footing. The contractor will install footings, lay a new slab that is out-sloped and build a larger shed that will be stuccoed to match the house. The crew showed up real early in the morning and started making lots of noise. We left them a cooler filled with mexicoke and went for a ride. When we came back, it was a pile of rubble.

hmmm, by the next two pictures can you figure out what happened here? We have this every few days.
Hawks love doves and are crafty hunters, driving them into windows.

When we had our HVAC installed, they had to add an elbow that required the left box in the ceiling. Art felt it would look weird if it was not somewhat symmetrical. He then mirrored the box on the right. We also replaced the recessed lights with LED's. It is an extra expense, but we have made a commitment to try to reduce our footprint when possible. Codes are not current standard but current minimum. We all can do much better if we want. LED's seem like an easy fix for a home owner.

 

[Norm]

How close are your neighbors? Like are you truly in the middle of "nowhere" so to speak?

 

[pixychick]

We have neighbors on all sides, but only a few houses between us and National Forest. I guess you could say we are at the end of the road and every house is on an acre or two, so we are not super close. Nearest golf course is 5 miles, which may be a measurable Az reference. All those kind of neighborhoods have HOA's and cookie cutter homes on little plots. Probably a great place for a retired person to live. ...oh,wait a minute.

.....Instead we chose the wild west belt.

 

[pixychick]

The first two pictures were taken on the trail from the mid gate circle. They are looking south at Push Ridge. The last picture is from the same place and looks north at my house and the golf community behind.

 

[pixychick]

Today I rode downtown at Sweetwater. This place is very fun. Much more bike specific trails but not super hilly or technical. It was a good break from working around the house as things are getting messy again. Art tore down some walls in the laundry room to allow the plumber to run some lines to a different wall. To do that, he had to move the machines out of the room as there is not even enough room to stand in there with them. This required taking the door off and releasing all the cement dust back into the house and opening up passage for critters. It will be about a week before the plumber does his thing, Art closes back up and the new machines get installed. ... and such is life on a construction site.

Last night we went down town to have few beers and hear some music. The venue was pretty cool. It was a restored court style motel from the 30's with shops in the rooms and the court yard turned into an outdoor stage. The band was good too. I don't go out all that often, but there was one thing that seemed really odd: everyone had white hair. Either I have not gone out in a long time or AZ is just filled with partying old folk. I don't normally think of myself as old folk, but I suppose I am. Last year at SSAZ, when Art won, the local pros were asking who won, and Dex, the local pro who was predicted to win, said "some old guy". Well, old or young makes no difference to me, it's just living, and I try not to get hung up on too may limiting details.


a. prickly pear with a dual pain purpose. The big spikes are painful, especially when they go through your shoe and brake off in to your foot. When you finally get them out, you are left with a gazillion thread like needles in you that you did not notice when you were concentrating on the big spikes.

b. A new shed/work shop started to go up today. Having no garage, we were short on space. Hopefully this will give us enough room for tools and bikes. We have been keeping a lot of stuff in the kitchen, entrance foyer and our ginormous bedroom.

 

[Rogers]

I'm enjoying this thread. My wife and I plan on exploring AZ for a winter home in the future.

 

[pixychick]

The Contractor was able to get windows and doors installed and a roof on the shed before we head east for a few weeks. It is actually raining as I type. Seventy degrees in NJ and 40 and raining in Arizona. It will probably get cold just as I get back to NJ.

Art did a super job making doors for the house. He bought milled vigas (logs), and paneled doors and ceiling panels for the downstairs hall. The first door was hung on our guest bath. It had an accordion door before. When we had the floors done, the door had to come out because of the track. Eleven months later, we have a door! You have to love retirement schedule.

Snow came down to 4500 feet with the last rain storm. We are at close to 3000, so you can see it right above the house. It really makes the mountains look beautiful. Both Art and I had a little moment when we started thinking about skiing. We both grew up avid skiers and have let it pass out of our lives. We just lost interest or got bored. Once you start skiing powder, it is hard the get excited about skiing in bounds. Maybe some day we will try skiing again. Colorado is only a days drive away. For now, I am enjoying the many warm sunny days in Arizona.

Hope to see some of you on the trails in a few days!

 

[pixychick]

I have been back in NY for a week now, and I have really enjoyed riding Ringwood. I do miss the trails we have in NJ, and while AZ has some good riding, it is not quite as great as our rocky stuff in Ringwood and Wayway. They are special for sure. It also is pretty cold here compared to AZ and I still do not like the cold. I realize that I am saying that on a year where NJ is unusually warm and AZ is unusually cold. It is amazing how 300 sunny days a year can warm the days up. Even when they say it is cloudy in AZ, it may still be more sunny than a partly sunny day in NJ.

The day after I got back, I went out to get my mail and I heard what sounded like a hawk cry. I looked up and saw two bald eagles flying over my mail box. How cool is that? Not sure where they were going or where they came from, but what a cool siting. The RW area is still a wonderful place.

I went to take a picture of our pond at sunset and when I downloaded the pictures they were right next to the last AZ picture of sunset. Some how, AZ sunsets are more impressive in pictures. You can compare:

 

[pixychick]

A few days late, but I would like to wish all my friends at MTBNJ a Happy New Year! After a quick visit back to NJ, I am really thankful for the special friends I have back east. The mountain bike community in NJ is the best! I hope to make more friends out here in Arizona, but staying busy with house projects has made me miss a bunch of group rides. Hopefully this year I will get out on more social rides.

My teammate was out to visit this past week and I rode every day, doubling my average ride time, trying to be a good host. My legs are pretty shot today, and luckily we are supposed to get rain all week. I sure could use a rest. I am also excited to get into some more house projects this coming week. Painting and backsplash tile are just a few.

Last week Art and our custom iron worker fabricated a door frame and hung our reclaimed doors. They look awesome! Anyone that comes out to visit and complains on a ride, gets locked in this closet. Well.not really, but they would make a great dungeon doorway.

Today's ride was just perfect temps. The last week was rather chilly in AZ terms, so 65-70 felt great today. I was too tired to do a group ride with uber climbing, so I opted to ride by myself on some flat trails and really enjoyed topping off my 12+ hours of riding this week. I have not done a week that heavy in the last 19 months. I guess that is a good start to the year.

 

[soundz]

that's a badass door

 

[pixychick]

The rain has passed, and was actually less than predicted.There was some snow up north Tucson and everyone was out taking pictures and making a big deal of it. The Tortolita mountains were white at 4 pm and brown by morning. Mt Lemon is another story. They had 40 inches and will hold it for a while. I guess altitude makes a difference. Either way, I have enjoyed seeing the snow up in the mountains behind my house. Trails are dry. Mornings are chilly, but riding mid day is fine in shorts.

Monday I got out to the Torts to do the Ridgeline Trail. That is some awesome Trail! The only bad part is the hump of a climb over the mountain on an eroded dirt road, both ways, to get there. For 12 miles of primo single track, you have to do 30 miles of riding. I suppose that is part of what makes it special. It was a good day on the bike, and I felt the extra miles on my legs. I took the next day off the bike to rest. Wednesday I went out on the bike and my legs were still screaming on the way to the trail. It took me 30 minutes, but they came around eventually. I like when that happens.

Projects are still coming along, but today was a special day: the lounge chairs arrived. I have been dreaming of napping in the sun since I got out here. I finally broke down and got two. I realize I do not have a patio yet, but I think it is time for some sun naps. I think it goes well with retirement ....